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■WHAT  IS  THE  BIBLE? 


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HOW  IS  IT  TO  BE  IIl/T 


WIWHMWWiaiMaMaHMMMN 


Rev.   THOMAS  RICH"v^  ~  p. 

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PRINCETON    •    NEW  JERSEY 
PRESENTED  BY 

Rev.    Jarnes   H.    Moffett 
035530 


;^W    OF  PRI^ 


^EP  28   iS60 


THE  QUESTION  OF  T 


:jVVSt^ 


WHAT  IS  THE  BIBLE 


FOR  WHAT  OBJECT  WAS  IT  WRITTEN 


HOW  IT  IS  TO  BE  READ 


THOMAS  RICHEY,  D.D. 

Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History,  General  Theological  Seminary 


NEW  YORK 

JAMES  POTT,  CHURCH  PUBLISHER 

12  AsTOR  Place 

1883 


Copyright,  1882, 
By  JAMES  POTT. 


PRESS  OF    J.    J.  LITTLE   &  CO., 
NOS.    lO   TO  20    ASTOR    PLACE,   NEW    YORK. 


I. 

WHAT  IS    THE  BIBLE? 


WHAT  IS  THE  BIBLE? 


IJHE  Bible,  as  the  title  Indicates,  is  the 
book  of  books.     Most  true  !    And  yet 


the  answer  is  not  altogether  satisfactory.  Its 
superiority  granted,  the  question  still  remains, 
H  ow  does  the  Bible  differ  from  all  other  books  ? 
And  to  this  it  is  not  enough  to  say,  the  Bible 
Is  a  revelation  of  God  from  heaven.  For  Nat- 
ure, too,  is  God's  book.  How,  then,  we  are 
constrained  to  ask,  does  the  revelation  of  God 
in  the  Bible  differ  from  the  revelation  wdiich 
God  makes  of  Himself  in  the  book  of  Nat- 
ure ?  To  this  the  Bible  itself  furnishes,  I 
think,  a  satisfactory  answer  (Ps.  xix), — 

7 


8  THE    QUESTION  OF    THE   DAY. 

"  The  heavens  are  declaring  the  glory  of  God, 

and     the     firmament    is    shewing*  His    handy- 
work  ; 
day  to  day  poureth  forth  speech, 

and  night  to  night  breatheth  forth  knowledge, 
no  speech  is  there,  there  are  no  words, 

all  inaudible  is  their  voice  : — 
their  line  goeth  forth  into  all  lands, 

and  their  signs  to  the  world's  end, 
where  He  has  fixed  for  the  sun  a  tent : 

And  He  steppeth  forth  as  a  bridegroom  from  His 

chamber, 
and   rejoiceth    as    a   mighty    man    to    run   His 
course  ; 
from  the  uttermost  part  of  the  heaven  He  has  His 
rising, 
and  His  circuit  to  the  end  of  it  again  ; 
and  there  is  nothing  hid  from  the  heat  thereof." 

From  this  manifestation  of  God  in  Nature, 
(where  it  will  be  observed  the  name  of 
God — El — occurs  only  once),  the  Psalmist 
passes  on  in  the  second  part  of  the  Psalm 
to  praise  God  for  His  more  perfect  revela- 
tion of  Himself  in  the  Law  : — 


WHAT  IS    THE  BIBLE?  9 

"  The  law  of  the  Lord  is  perfect — restoring  the  soul  ; 
the  testimony  of  the  Lord  is  faithful — making  wise 
the  simple  : 
the  precepts  of  the  Lord  are  right — rejoicing  the  heart  ; 
the  commandment  of  the  Lord  is  pure — enlight- 
ening the  eyes : 
the  fear  of  the  Lord  is  clean — enduring  forever  ; 

the    judgments   of   the  Lord  are   truth — they  are 
righteous  altogether : 
More  to  be  desired  are  they  than  gold  or  much  fine  gold  ; 
and  sweeter  than  honey,  or  the  droppings  of  the 
comb  : 
moreover  by  them  is  Thy  servant  warned  ; 
in  keeping  them  there  is  great  reward." 

Here,  it  will  be  noted,  the  name  Yahveh 
occurs  seven  times ;  the  number  and  the 
change  of  name  indicating  that  it  is  no  longer 
God  as  the  Divine  Governor  of  the  world 
which  is  the  subject  of  consideration,  but  the 
Covenant  God  of  Israel  in  His  special  work 
of  Redemption. 

It  is  beyond  all  question,  then,  that  the 
Bible  at  the  first  was  given  to  the  Jews,  and 
was  placed  as  a  precious  deposit  in  their  keep- 


lO  THE   QUESTION  OF   THE  DAY. 

ing.  It  is  also  beyond  all  question  that  the 
New  Testament  Scriptures  were  written  more 
especially  for  the  Christian  Church,  and  to- 
gether with  the  Old  were  handed  down  by  it 
from  generation  to  generation.  It  is  also  be- 
yond all  question  that  both  the  Jewish  and  the 
Christian  Churches  were  of  the  opinion  that 
in  the  Scriptures  so  handed  down  they  had  a 
certified  record  of  God's  dealings  with  the 
Church  and  people  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end  of  time,  and  were  accustomed  to  have 
recourse  to  the  Bible  accordingly.*'^  These  are 
the  simple  facts  of  the  case.  Now  let  us  see 
what  may  fairly  be  deduced  from  them.  It 
is  clear  then,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that   the 

*  For  what  is  the  matter  of  the  Bible  but  those  acts  and 
words  of  God  in  which  He  has  opened  His  very  heart,  and  dis- 
closed to  us  His  purposes  of  salvation — that  whole  great,  glorious 
history  in  which  His  thoughts  of  love  have  been  revealed  and  ful- 
filled ?  For  the  Bible  is  no  mere  collection  of  maxims,  and  precepts, 
or  religious  truths,  but  that  great  history  of  salvation  which,  com- 
mencing with  the  first  beginning  of  the  race,  was  continued  through 
the  times  of  the  patriarchs  and  prophets,  culminated  in  Jesus 
Christ  and  the  events  of  His  death  and  resurrection,  and  will  be 
completed  in  that  future  world  which  is  promised  to  us." — Luthardt. 


WHAT  IS    THE  BIBLE?  II 

Bible,  at  the  first,  was  not  given  into  the  pos- 
session of  the  world  at  large,  but  was  in- 
tended for  the  exclusive  use  of  a  peculiar 
people.  Whether  or  not  this  was  to  be  the 
case  for  all  time  is  another  question  ;  and 
has  nothing  to  do  with  the  facts  of  the  case 
as  they  present  themselves  before  us  just 
now  for  consideration.  The  Bible,  it  is  to  be 
feared,  has  suffered  as  much  from  the  un- 
warranted claims  put  forth  for  it  by  its 
friends  as  it  has  from  the  slights  which  from 
time  to  time  are  attempted  to  be  put  upon 
it  by  its  enemies.  When  it  is  claimed,  for 
example,  that,  because  the  Bible  is  from 
God,  it  must  be  intended  to  teach  everybody 
everything — this  is  to  put  abstract  speculation 
in  the  place  of  historical  fact,  and  to  ignore 
the  limitations  which  the  distinctive  character 
of  the  revelation  of  necessity  imposes  upon 
it.  It  is  just  as  bad  to  make  too  much  of  the 
Bible  as  it  is  to  make  too  little  of  it.  The 
Bible  is    not    an    encyclopedia  of   universal 


12  THE   QUESTION  OF   THE  DAY. 

knowledge,  nor  was  it  ever  intended  to  be. 
It  is  true  that  the  Bible  is  a  revelation  from 
heaven  ;  but  it  is  not  true  that  it  is  the  only- 
revelation  from  heaven.  God  reveals  Him- 
self, as  has  been  said,  in  one  way  in  Nature 
and  the  Conscience  :  in  another  way,  in  the 
Bible  and  the  Church.  The  Bible  does  not 
take  the  place  of  the  Conscience  :  it  corrects, 
it  may  be,  and  supplements  it :  nor  does  the 
Church,  to  whose  existence  from  the  begin- 
ning the  Bible  bears  testimony,  take  the 
place  of  Nature,  and  the  powers  to  whom 
God  has  given  authority  therein.  Here,  as 
elsewhere,  we  have  the  testimony,  not  of  one, 
but  of  two  or  three  witnesses." 

Again,  there  are  people  who  will  insist  upon 

*  "When  we  extol  the  complete  sufficiency  of  the  entire  body  of 
the  Scripture,"  says  Hooker,  "it  must  be  understood  with  this 
caution,  that  the  benefit  of  nature's  light  be  not  thought  excluded 
as  unnecessary,  because  the  necessity  of  a  diviner  light  is  magni- 
fied. It  sufficeth,  therefore,  that  Nature  and  Scripture  do  serve  in 
such  full  sort  that  they  both  conjointly  and  not  severally  either  of 
them  be  so  complete,  that  unto  everlasting  felicity  we  need  not 
the  knowledge  of  anything  more  than  these  two  may  easily  furnish 
our  minds  with  on  all  sides." 


« 


WHAT  IS    THE  BIBLE?      •  13 

going  to  the  Bible  with  all  manner  of  hard 
questions,  and  are  disappointed  if  they  do  not 
find  the  solution  of  their  questions  there. 
Now  this  again  is  to  expect  more  from  the 
Bible  than  it  was  ever  intended  to  fulfill.  The 
Bible  addresses  itself  primarily  to  faith,  not  to 
reason.  It  does  not  solve  hard  questions,  for 
the  reason  that  the  people  for  whom  it  was 
more  especially  written  are  not  of  the  kind 
supposed  to  entertain  such  questions.  If 
people  will  have  their  doubts  and  difiiculties 
set  at  rest,  they  must  go  elsewhere  than  to 
the  Bible.  The  Bible  is  the  certified  record 
of  God's  dealings  with  His  Church  and  peo- 
ple. It  w^as  written  accordingly  for  the  in- 
struction and  education  of  faith,  not  to  answer 
hard  questions.  The  case  of  Pharaoh,  over* 
which  people  sometimes  puzzle  themselves,  is 
a  case  in  point.  It  is  something  for  faith  to 
know  that  the  evil  as  well  as  the  good  is  in 
the  hands  of  God.  Evil  angels  and  bad  men, 
while  permitted  to  do  harm  and  work  mis- 


14  THE   QUESTION  OF    THE  DAY. 

chief  for  a  time,  will  in  the  end  be  made  to 
do  God's  bidding.  As  to  the  Ethical  ques- 
tions involved,  the  Bible  itself  gives  no  an- 
swer to  them.  It  is  the  function  of  Philoso- 
phy to  reconcile  the  sovereignty  of  God  with 
the  free  agency  of  man,  not  of  a  guide  to 
faith  and  a  book  written  for  the  edification 
of  God's  own  Church  and  people.  If  people 
will  insist  upon  an  answer  to  their  questions, 
and  will  find  fault  with  the  Bible  for  not  fur- 
nishing them  with  what  they  ask,  they  are 
simply  unreasonable  and  their  extravagance 
is  not  to  be  charged  as  a  fault  to  the  dispar- 
aging of  a  book  expressly  written,  as  has 
been  said,  to  aid  faith,  and  not  to  gratify 
reason. 

Then  there  are  a  class  of  people  who 
find  fault  with  the  Bible  because  it  does  not 
speak  in  technical  language,  and  is  in  mani- 
fest contradiction  to  the  discoveries  of  sci- 
ence, they  say.  They  might  just  as  well 
find  fault  with  the  world  they  live   in,  and 


IVHAT  IS    THE  BIBLE?      ■  1 5 

criticise  the  way  God  has  chosen  to  reveal 
Himself  in  nature.  The  world,  as  it  appears 
to  us  to  be,  is  in  flat  contradiction  to  the  world 
which  men  of  science  will  insist  upon  our 
thinking  it  to  be.  We  talk  of  the  sun's  rising 
and  setting,  notwithstanding  it  is  not  the 
sun  which  moves  around  the  earth,  but  it  is 
the  earth  which  moves  round  the  sun. 
Strange  to  say,  men  of  science  every  day  use 
language  which  they  themselves  declare  is  in 
open  contradiction  to  what  they  know  and 
teach.  But  what  If  the  phenomenal  world 
has  its  own  story  to  tell  as  well  as  the 
maze  of  fixed  laws  in  which  science  delights 
to  revel  ?  The  fair  beauty  of  the  world, 
as  reflected  In  sun,  moon  and  stars,  and 
painted  by  the  Divine  Artist  in  glory  upon 
the  sky,  It  is  to  be  believed,  has  its 
own  mission,  and  Is  not  altogether  with- 
out a  purpose.  May  it  not  be  that  to  the 
great  mass  of  men,  the  beauty  of  nature  as 
seen  by  the  eye,  or  as  distilled  by  music  Into 


1 6  THE   QUESTION  OF   THE  DAY. 

the  ear,  has  an  evidential  value  quite  as 
powerful  in  its  way  as  the  order  of  nat- 
ure and  the  hidden  harmony  of  its  laws  ? 
May  it  not  be  that  the  emotions  kindled  in 
the  heart  of  the  savage,  as  he  stands  awe- 
stricken  in  the  presence  of  the  Power  which 
speaks  to  him  in  the  voice  of  the  thunder 
or  the  roar  of  the  ocean,  are  of  equal 
moral  and  spiritual  value  with  the  intellect- 
ual pleasure  which  fills  the  mind  of  the 
scientist  when  he  contemplates  the  order 
and  arrangement  which  pervade  the  whole 
system  of  nature?  What  if  the  belief  which 
rises  spontaneously  at  the  sight  of  the 
beauty  of  the  world,  and  breaks  out  in 
hymns  of  adoring  gratitude  and  songs  of 
unending  praise  be  intended  to  counter- 
work the  unbelief  which  the  spirit  of  inquiry 
fosters,  and  the  doubts'"*  suggested  by  the 

*  See  Canon  Mosley's  sermon  upon  "  Nature  ":  "  It  is  thus  that 
the  admiration  of  the  beauty  of  nature  strikes  a  sort  of  balance 
with  the  scientific  analysis  of  nature  in  the  general  effect  upon 
the  religious  mind  of  an  age.     The  tendency  of  the  analysis  of 


WHAT  IS   THE  BIBLE? 


17 


development  of  the  critical  faculties.  Be 
this  as  it  may,  the  Bible  follows  the  course 
of  nature  in  speaking  to  man  through  the 
medium  of  phenomenal  and  every-day  lan- 
guage, and  does  not  make  use  of  exact  or 
of  scientific  speech.  Nay,  more,  as  It  was 
the  calling  of  the  Jew  to  keep  alive  in  the 
world  the  knowledo^e  of  the  one  livinor  and 
true  God  in  opposition  to  the  idolatry  of  the 
powers  of  nature,  the  Bible  always  and  every- 

nature  is  to  reduce  the  idea  of  the  Deity  in  men's  minds  to  a  nega- 
tion, and  to  convert  the  First  Great  Cause  into  a  mere  physical 
force.  But  the  admiration  of  nature  as  a  creation  of  beauty,  on 
the  other  hand,  tends  to  support  the  moral  idea  of  the  Deity,  to 
excite  a  curiosity  and  interest  about  His  character,  and  so  far  to 
sustain  the  mystery  of  the  Gospel  disclosure  of  His  character. 
One  and  the  same  age  has  developed  in  a  signal  manner  both  of 
these  principles  ;  two  influences  have  gone  forth  from  it,  and  the 
physical  idea  of  nature  from  analysis,  and  the  mystical  and  imag- 
inative idea  from  the  picture  have  contended  within  its  bosom, 
and  sometimes  within  the  same  minds.  The  impression  from  the 
visible  world,  as  a  chain  of  material  causation,  has  been  more  or 
less  counteracted  and  counterbalanced  by  the  visible  world  as  a 
spiritual  sight.  A  spiritual  fact  ever  before  us  is  a  spiritual  me- 
mento; and  beauty  is  a  spiritual  fact,  because  it  altogether  hinges 
upon  a  spiritual  principle  within  us,  and  only  exists  as  an  address 
to  it.  And  so  we  generally  find  that  no  one  set  of  ideas  is  al- 
lowed to  domineer  and  monopolize  ground  in  any  age,  but,  when 
one  rises  to  power,  another  is  provided  to  meet  and  check  it." 


1 8  THE   QUESTION  OF    THE   DAY. 

where  speaks  of  God  as  present  and  acting, 
without  reo^ard  to  the  laws  of  nature,  or  the 
y  teachings  of  science.  It  is  for  Reason  to 
discover  the  ways  of  God  in  nature  and 
history  ;  it  is  for  Faith  to  trace  the  deahngs 
of  God  with  His  own  elect  Church  and 
people.  The  one  is  not  in  opposition  to  the 
other  any  more  than  it  is  to  pray  to  God  as 
the  Giver  and  Bestower  of  all  things,  to 
"give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread,"  while 
we  bend  ourselves,  notwithstanding,  to  toil, 
knowing  that  if  a  man  will  not  labor  he  has 
no  right  to  expect  to  eat.  Faith  views  the 
world  on  its  supernatural  side  ;  science,  on  its 
I  natural  side  ;  sight,  on  its  phenomenal  side. 
There  is  a  language  of  faith,  just  as  there  is 
a  language  of  science ;  and  there  is  a  common 
speech  which  interprets  the  world  as  mere 
phenomena.  The  truth  of  the  language  in 
every  case  depends  upon  the  point  of  view 
from  which,  at  the  time  of  speaking  or  writ- 
ing, we  are  looking  at  the  world  and  all  that 


WHAT  IS    THE  BIBLE?  1 9 

IS  therein.  Between  the  different  points  of 
view  there  is  no  necessary  contradiction. 
There  ts  no  contradiction,  except  when  fools 
and  pedants  will  insist  upon  it  that  their  own 
point  of  view  is  the  only  point  of  view,  and 
will  compel  everybody  to  look  at  things 
through  their  spectacles.  Men  of  science  In 
this  respect  have  been  as  much  at  fault  as 
theologians ;  and  worse  than  all  is  the  irra- 
tional crowd  which  will  believe  nothInQ[- 
except  what  it  sees  with  its  eyes.  There  is 
no  real  conflict  to-day — there  never  has  been 
any — between  the  Bible  and  science;  between 
the  natural  and  the  supernatural ;  between 
faith  and  reason.  The  conflict,  If  there  be 
any,  is  between  belief  and  unbelief ;  and 
when  it  reaches  that  point,  neither  the  reve- 
lation of  God  in  nature,  nor  the  revelation  of 
God  in  the  Bible,  Is  of  any  avail  to  convince 
the  gainsayen* 

*  "The  question  concerning  the  origin  of  matter,  leaving  the 
region  of  sensible  reality,  passes  into  that  of  speculation  or  of  faith. 
At  this  point,  then,  natural  science  ceases  to  be  natural  science,  and 


20  THE   QUESTION  OF   THE  DAY. 

It  Is  a  matter  of  complaint  on  the  part  of 
purists,  as  well  as  of  those  who  affect  a  high 
tone  in  morals,  that  there  are  things  in  the 
Bible  which  are  not  to  be  found  in  ordinary 
books  upon  moral  culture.  Possibly  !  The 
Bible  deals  with  moral  science,  just  as  it  deals 
with  physical  science.  It  does  not  treat  of 
the  science  of  Ethics,  but  has  to  do  with  the 
facts  on  which  morals  as  a  science  rest ;  its 
arrangement  Is  not  scientific  but  historical ; 
not  formal,  but  economical.  It  was  neces- 
sary, In  accordance  with  the  plan  which  God 
in  redemption  had  In  view,  that  the  whole 
mystery  of  sin  and  evil  should  be  allowed  to 

becomes  either  philosophy  or  religion.  Whether  we  admit  matter 
to  have  been  created  by  God,  or  look  upon  it  as  self-existent  and 
eternal,  or  whether  we  do  not  concern  ourselves  with  it  at  all,  is  a 
matter  of  equal  indifference  as  far  as  natural  science,  which  starts 
from  the  existence  of  material  being,  is  concerned.  Hence,  in  this 
question,  there  neither  is  nor  can  be  any  conflict  between  science 
and  faith.  If  a  conflict  does  take  place,  it  is  one  between  two 
opposite  views  of  the  world,  which  are  both  as  views  originally  ac- 
cepted from  other  sources.  Matters  of  faith,  whether  that  faith  be 
a  religious  or  a  philosophical  one ;  what  seem  at  first  a  conflict  with 
science,  is  rather  a  conflict  with  the  philosophy  which  her  votaries 
accept."— Luthardt.) 


WHA  T  IS  THE  BIBLE  ?  21 

reveal  Itself,  before  the  remedy  provided 
could  be  applied.  There  are  ugly  things  In 
the  Bible  just  as  there  are  filthy  and  disgust- 
ing creatures  in  nature.  There  are  typical 
bad  men  In  Holy  Scripture  just  as  there  are 
typical  good  men.  The  Bible  has  not  only 
to  do  with  Christ,  but  with  Ante-Christ  also. 
Abel  has  his  Cain  ;  Jacob,  his  Esau  ;  Isaac,  his 
Ishmael ;  Elijah,  his  Balaam ;  David,  his  Saul. 
The  mystery  of  evil  is  permitted  to  reveal 
itself  along  with  the  mystery  of  redemption. 
Nor  are  the  eood  men  of  the  Bible  Ideal  char- 
acters.  They  have  their  faults,  which  are,  for 
the  most  part,  the  exaggeration  of  their  vir- 
tues. And  their  virtues,  at  the  last,  are  won 
by  the  overcoming  of  their  faults.  The 
moral  law,  as  it  Is  revealed  In  the  Bible,  is 
not  an  abstract  code  of  ethics,  or,  as  some 
will  have  it,  a  re-declaration  of  the  law  of 
Nature.  Sin  was  first  allowed  to  reveal  itself ; 
then  the  law  was  given  to  correct  It.  The 
first   commandment    bears   witness   against 


2  2  THE   QUESTION  OF   THE  DAY, 

the  idolatry  of  Israel  in  Egypt;  the  pres- 
ence of  which  it  speaks  is  the  presence 
revealed  in  the  Tabernacle,  not  the  Great 
Spirit  which  the  Indian  bows  down  to  and 
worships.  The  Sabbath  is  to  be  kept,  not  as 
a  nature-festival,  but  as  a  memorial  of  re- 
demption. 

The  Bible,  then,  is  a  book  sui  generis.  It 
is  not  an  encyclopedia  of  universal  knowl- 
edge ;  nor  is  it  given  to  serve  the  place  of  a 
book  of  puzzles ;  nor  is  it  a  scientific  treat- 
ment of  moral  and  physical  questions.  It 
was  written  for  a  peculiar  people  ;  it  was 
given  for  a  special  purpose.  It  is  but  fair  in 
judging  of  it,  to  look  at  it  from  the  point  of 
view  from  which  the  writers  regard  the  sub- 
jects of  which  they  treat.*  The  Bible  is  not  to 

*  Although  the  Scripture  of  God,  therefore,  be  stored  with  infi- 
nite variety  of  matter  of  all  kinds,  although  it  abound  with  all 
sorts  of  laws,  yet  the  principal  intent  of  Scripture  is  to  deUver  the 
laws  of  duties  supernatural,  .  .  The  testimonies  of  God  are  true, 
the  testimonies  of  God  are  perfect,  the  testimonies  of  God  are  all- 
sufficient  for  that  end  for  which  they  were  given.  Therefore,  ac- 
cordingly, we  do  receive  them.    We  do  not  think  that  in  them  God 


AVHAT  IS   THE  BIBLE?  23 

be  blamed  for  not  throwing  light  on  things 
with  which  it  has  nothing  at  all  properly  to 
do.  A  bird's-eye  view  of  the  contents  will 
make  all  this  abundantly  plain.  Take,  first 
of  all,  the  Pentateuch,  or  five  books  of  Moses. 
"The  entire  work,"  says  Professor  Kiel, 
''  though  divided  into  five  parts,  forms,  both 
in  plan  and  execution,  one  complete  and 
carefully  contrasted  whole,  commencing  with 
the  creation,  and  reaching  to  the  death  of 
Moses,  the  mediator  of  the  old  covenant. 
The  foundation  for  the  Divine  plan  was  really 
laid  in  and  along  with  the  creation  of  the 
World.  The  world  which  God  created  is  the 
scene  of  a  history  embracing  both  God  and 
man,  the  site  for  the  kingdom  of  God  in  its 
temporal  and  earthly  form.  All  that  \ki^ first 
book  contains  with   reference  to    the  early 

hath  omitted  anything  needful  to  His  purpose,  and  left  His  intent 
to  be  accomplished  by  our  devisings.  \Maat  the  Scripture  pur- 
poseth,  the  same  in  all  points  it  doth  perform.  Howbeit  that  we 
swerve  not  m  judgment,  one  thing  especially  we  must  obser\-e, 
namely,  that  the  absolute  perfection  of  Scripture  is  seen  by  rela- 
tion to  that  end  whereto  it  tendeth." — Hooker. 


24  THE   QUESTION  OF   THE   DAY. 

history  of  the  human  race,  from  Adam  to  the 
patriarchs  of  Israel,  stands  in  a  more  or  less 
relation  to  the  kingdom  of  God  in  Israel,  of 
which  the  other  books  describe  the  actual 
establishment.  The  second  depicts  the  in- 
auguration of  the  kingdom  of  Sinai.  Of  the 
third  and  fotcrth,  the  former  narrates  the 
spiritual,  the  latter  the  political  organization 
of  the  kingdom  of  God  by  facts  and  moral 
precepts.  Th^Jiftk  recapitulates  the  whole 
in  a  hortatory  strain,  embracing  both  his- 
tory and  legislation,  and  impresses  it  upon 
the  hearts  of  the  people,  for  the  purpose 
of  arousing  true  fidelity  to  the  covenant, 
and  securinor  its  lasting:  duration."     It  is  a 

o  o 

puzzle  to  many  readers  of  the  Bible  why  the 
books  which  contain  the  further  history  of  the 
people  of  God  from  the  death  of  Moses  to 
the  Babylonish  captivity, viz.,  Joshua,  Judges, 
I  and  2  Samuel,  i  and  2  Kings,  are  reckoned 
among  the  prophetical  books.  The  Jews 
called   these    books    the   Prophetae  priores. 


WHAT  IS   THE  BIBLE?  25 

They  did  so  because  the  period  covered  by 
these  books  Is  reorarded  not  from  an  his- 
torical,  but  from  a  prophetical  point  of 
view.  The  writers  treat  the  subject  not 
after  the  manner  of  annaHsts,  but  with  a  view 
to  the  instruction  and  edification  of  the 
Church.  It  Is  the  prophetical  element,  as  in 
the  review  which  Moses  makes  of  the  early 
history  of  God's  people  in  the  book  of  Deuter- 
onom)^  which  Is  of  real  value  In  these  histor- 
ical books,  not  the  order  of  events  regarded  as 
mere  facts  of  history.  So  also  with  the  later 
prophets  (^prophctae  posteriorcs)  Isaiah,  Jer- 
emiah, Ezekiel,  the  twelve  minor  prophets  ; 
they  are  not  mere  predictions  of  future 
events,  but  ''  contain  the  progressive  testi- 
mony to  the  council  of  God,  delivered  in 
connection  with  the  acts  of  God,  during  the 
gradual  decay  of  the  Old  Testament  king- 
dom." It  is,  again,  a  puzzle  to  many  why 
the  Book  of  Ruth  in  the  Jewish  arrangement 
of  the  Canon  should  be  torn  away  from  Its 


26  THE   QUESTION  OF    THE  DAY. 

historical  relationship  as  an  appendix  to  the 
Book  of  Judges,  and  placed  among  the  Hag- 
lographa  or  holy  writings  with  the  Song  of 
Solomon  and  the  Lamentations  of  Jeremiah. 
But  the  answer  is  not  hard  to  find.  It  Is  the 
mystical  element  in  the  book,  connected 
with  the  introduction  of  a  Moabitess  into 
the  Church  and  kingdom  of  God  which  gives 
it  its  place  in  the  Canon  of  Scripture.  Noth- 
ing could  be  further  from  the  spirit  of  Jew- 
ish exclusiveness  than  such  a  thought.  It 
looked  forward  to  the  introduction  of  an  en- 
tire foreign  element  Into  the  Church  and 
kingdom  of  God  which  was  to  find  its  ulti- 
mate realization  in  the  ingathering  of  the 
Gentiles.  There  could  be  no  greater  evidence 
of  an  overruling  hand  In  the  arrangement 
of  the  Old  Testament  Canon  than  that  a  book 
containing  the  evidence  of  such  a  fact  should 
find  a  place  in  the  Jewish  Scriptures.  It  is 
the  same  mystical  element  which  gives  to  the 
Song  of  Solomon  its  place  in  the  Hagiogra- 


WHAT  IS    THE  BIBLE?  2^ 

pha.  It  is  not  a  mere  love  song,  as  the  pro- 
fane mockers  of  whom  the  Psalmist  speaks 
will  have  it  to  be.  The  little  sister  of  the 
bride  that  is  ''  black  but  comely,"  foreshadows 
an  alliance  with  the  outlying  world  of  sinners 
among  the  Gentiles,  and  marks  wdth  festive 
rejoicing  (as  the  return  of  the  prodigal  in  St. 
Luke's  Gospel  in  the  New  Testament)  the 
introduction  of  an  entirely  foreign  element 
into  the  Church  of  God.'^     Men    may  scoff 

*  "  If  the  Shulamite  represents  Israel — the  typical  Israel — her 
sister  not  yet  grown  up  can  only  represent  that  part  of  mankind 
which  is  not  yet  fitted  to  undergo  the  trial  to  which  this  nation  was 
the  first  to  be  submitted, — heathen  mankind,  therefore.  The  reader 
will  perhaps  ask  himself  whether  the  eyes  of  the  ancient  poet  could 
pierce  so  far  into  the  future.  But  does  not  Solomon  himself,  when 
he  is  inaugurating  the  Temple,  and  dedicating  that  building  to 
Jehovah  as  His  dwelling-place  in  Israel,  expressly  set  apart  a  place 
for  the  Gentiles  in  this  House.  Does  he  not  ask  that  their  prayers 
also  may  be  heard  ?  "  Moreover,  concerning  a  stranger,  that  is  not 
of  thy  people  Israel,  but  cometh  out  of  a  far  country  for  thy  name's 
sake  (for  they  shall  hear  of  thy  great  name,  and  of  thy  strong 
hand,  and  of  thy  stretched  out-arm);  when  he  shall  come  and  pray 
toward  this  house  ;  hear  thou  in  heaven,  thy  dwelling-place,  and 
do  according  to  all  that  the  stranger  calleth  to  thee  for  :  that  all 
people  of  the  earth  may  know  thy  name,  to  fear  thee,  as  do  thy 
people  Israel." 

"  Did  not  Solomon  at  the  summit  of  his  glory,  see  a  representa- 


28  THE   QUESTION  OF   THE  DAY. 

at  the  idea  of  a  prophet  Hke  Hosea,  taking 
to  himself  a  ''wife  of  whoredom,  and  chil- 
dren of  whoredom/'  but  their  scoffing  only 
betrays  the  ignorance  of  what  Holy  Script- 
ures in  such  a  case  really  means  to  teach, 
and  of  their  inability  to  appreciate  the  fore- 
shadowing of  the  mystery  of  the  union  of 
Divinity  with  fallen,  outcast  humanity  in  the 
person  of  the  eternal  Son  of  God.*  It  Is  the 
old  Pharisaic  cant  about  eating  and  drinking 
with  publicans  and  sinners.  God  help  the 
world,  if  it  is  to  be  given  over  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  Puritans  and  unbelievers.     Satan 


tive  of  this  Gentile  world,  a  foreign  queen,  arrive  at  Jerusalem,  at- 
tracted not  by  the  fame  of  his  name  only,  but  also  by  that  of  the 
name  of  Jehovah,  whose  appearance  may  well  have  contributed  to 
awaken  in  the  poet's  mind  the  idea  of  this  personification  of  pagan 
humanity  in  the  young  sister  of  the  Shulamite  ?  The  Gentiles  will 
one  day  have  to  decide  on  their  destiny,  as  Israel  is  now  called  to 
decide  on  its  own.  They,  too,  will  have  to  choose  between  the 
visions  of  a  false  glory,  and  the  happiness  enjoyed  in  the  love  of 
God  ;  between  the  Messiah  crowned  with  gold,  and  the  Messiah 
whose  hair  is  wet  with  the  dews  of  night  or  even  whose  head  is 
crowned  with  thorns." — Godet. 

*  See  Aubertein  on  Daniel  and  the  Revelation,  (p.  279)  for  an 
admirable  treatment  of  this  whole  subject. 


WHAT  IS    THE  BIBLE?  20 

never  plays  a  better  role  than  when  he  turns 
reformer,  and  affects  morality. 

When  we  turn  to  the  New  Testament,  we 
can  trace  the  same  essential  features  of 
Divine  Revelation  prevailing  throughout. 
The  four  Gospels  are  not  narratives  in  the 
ordinary  meaning  of  the  word ,  nor  are  they 
what  is  commonly  known  as  "  inspired  pro- 
ductions," as  when  men  sit  down  to  spin  out 
of  their  own  brain  a  book.  The  four  Gos- 
pels, as  Mr.  Wescott  in  his  very  able  intro- 
duction has  conclusively  proved,  are  the 
record  of  the  oral  teaching  of  the  Apostles, 
as  that  teaching  was  arranged  and  modified 
to  suit  the  exigencies  and  the  varying  needs 
of  the  Apostolic  Church.  The  Gospels  are 
not  abstract  and  ideal  productions ;  they 
grew  out  of  the  felt  needs  of  God's  people, 
and  were  arranged  accordingly.  St.  Matthew 
adapted  his  teaching  to  meet  the  wants 
of  the  Jewish  communities.  St.  Mark,  under 
the  guidance  of  St.  Peter,  wrote  his  Gospel 


30  THE   QUESTION  OF    THE  DAY. 

of  the  kingdom  for  the  Romans.  St.  Luke, 
with  St.  Paul  for  his  master,  wrote  to  vindi- 
cate the  introduction  of  sinners  into  the 
kingdom,  and  to  help  the  Gentile  churches. 
St.  John  produced  his  spiritual  Gospel  to 
meet  a  more  advanced  stage  of  spiritual  ex- 
perience ;  and  to  bring  out  in  connection 
with  it  the  sacramental  element  bound  up 
with  the  taking  of  humanity  into  union  with 
the  Godhead  in  the  person  of  Christ.  The 
inspiration  which  arranged  and  adjusted  the 
facts  of  our  Lord's  life,  and  grouped  and 
methodized  His  teaching,  was  not  a  verbal 
or  a  mechanical  inspiration  ;  but  part  and 
parcel  of  that  promised  gift  of  the  Comforter, 
Who,  after  their  Lord's  departure,  was  to 
remain  with  the  disciples  and  bring  to 
their  ''  remembrance  "  all  the  things  which 
He  had  said  unto  them,  as  the  course  of 
events,  and  the  guidance  of  Divine  Provi- 
dence, and  their  own  ordinary  experience, 
showed  the  apostles  and  their  fellow-labor- 


WHA  T  IS    THE  BIBLE . 


31 


ers  In  the  Lord,  the  things  of  Christ  In  a 
new  hght.  The  Holy  Spirit  taught  them  how 
to  apply  their  growing  experience  for  the 
edification  of  Christ's  Church  and  people. 
There  Is  nothing  mechanical  In  all  this  ;  no 
book-making ;  no  fine  writing ;  but,  what  Is 
better  far,  a  Christian  realism  and  the  work- 
ins:  of  a  Presence  and  a  Power  which  Is  none 
other  than  Divine.*'^ 


*  Godet  ("  Studies  on  the  New  Testament")  puts  this  admirably 
well  :  Four  portraits  of  Himself.  This  is  the  whole  of  the  legacy 
left  by  Jesus  to  His  family  on  earth.  But  they  are  sufficient  for 
its  needs,  because  by  the  contemplation  of  these  the  Church  re- 
ceives into  herself,  through  the  communications  of  the  Spirit,  the 
life  of  Him  whose  characteristic  features  they  set  forth. 

These  pictures  originated  spontaneously  and  (the  first  three, 
at  all  events)  independently  of  each  other.  They  arose,  acci- 
dentally in  a  manner,  from  the  four  principal  regions  of  the  earth 
comprehended  by  the  Church  in  the  first  century — Palestine,  Asia 
Minor,  Greece,  Italy. 

The  characteristics  of  these  four  regions  have  not  failed  to  exer. 
cise  a  certain  influence  upon  the  manner  in  which  the  Christ  has 
been  presented  in  the  pictures  intended  for  the  use  of  each.  In 
Palestine,  Matthew  proclaimed  Jesus  as  Him  who  put  the  finishing- 
stroke  to  the  establishing  of  that  holy  kingdom  of  God  which  had 
been  fore-announced  by  the  prophets,  and  of  which  the  founda- 
tions had  been  laid  in  Israel.  In  Rome,  Mark  presented  Him 
as  the  irresistible  conqueror  who  founded  His  divine  right  to  the 
possession  of  the  world  upon  His  miraculous  power.     Among  the 


32  THE   QUESTION  OF    THE  DAY. 

As  the  Gospels  do  not  furnish  us  with  a 
detailed  narrative  of  all   the  events  of   the 


generous  and  affable  Hellenic  races,  Luke  described  Him  as  the 
Divine  philanthropist  commissioned  to  carry  out  the  work  of  divine 
grace  and  compassion  toward  the  worst  of  sinners.  In  Asia  Minor, 
that  ancient  cradle  of  theosophy,  John  pictured  Him  as  the  WoM 
made  flesh,  the  Eternal  Life  and  Light,  who  had  descended  into 
the  world  of  time.  Thus  it  was  under  the  influence  of  a  profound 
sympathy  with  those  about  him  that  each  evangelist  brought  into 
relief  that  aspect  of  Christ  which  answered  most  nearly  to  the  ideal 
of  His  readers. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  each  of  the  evangelists  has  also,  by 
means  of  the  picture  which  He  has  drawn,  pronounced  a  judgment 
upon  whatever  was  impure  in  the  aspirations  with  which,  in  some 
respects.  He  sympathized.  The  spiritual  and  inspired  Messianic 
idea  presented  by  Matthew  condemned  that  political  and  carnal 
view  of  the  Church,  which  is  the  very  soul  of  false  Judaism.  The 
sanctified  and  divine  Romanism  of  Mark  condemned  the  Csesarism 
of  mere  brute  force.  The  heavenly  Atticism  of  Luke  took  the 
place  of  the  frivolous  and  corrupt  Hellenism  encountered  by  Paul 
at  Athens.  Lastly,  humanitarianism — the  divine  humauitarianism 
of  John — stands  as  an  eternal  witness  against  the  humanitarianism, 
profane  and  anti-divine  in  its  nature,  of  a  world  dazzled  with  its 
own  gi-eatness  and  lost  in  evil. 

Our  Gospels  are  at  once  magnets  to  draw  to  themselves  what- 
ever is  left  of  divine  in  the  depths  of  human  nature,  and,  as  it  were, 
winnowing  machines  to  lift  out  from  it  whatsoever  is  sinful. 
Hence  the  power  both  of  attraction  and  repulsion  which  they  exert 
upon  the  natural  heart  of  man. 

It  has  sometimes  been  asked  why,  instead  of  the  four  Gospels, 
God  did  not  cause  a  single  one  to  be  written  in  which  all  the 
events  should  have  been  arranged  in  their  chronological  order,  and 
the  history  of  Jesus  portrayed  with  the  accuracy  of  a  legal  docu- 


WHAT  IS    THE   BIBLE?  33 

life  of  Christ,  so  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
we  have  not  a  history  of  the  Apostolic  Church, 

ment.  If  llie  drawing  up  of  the  Gospels  had  been  the  work  of 
human  skill,  it  would  no  doubt  have  taken  this  form  ;  but  it  is  just 
here  that  we  seem  to  be  able  to  lay  a  finger  upon  the  altogether 
Divine  Nature  of  the  impulse  which  originated  the  work. 

Just  as  a  gifted  painter  who  wished  to  immortalize  for  a  family 
the  complete  likeness  of  the  father,  who  had  been  its  glory,  would 
avoid  any  attempt  at  combining  in  a  single  portrait  the  insignia 
of  all  the  various  offices  he  had  filled,  representing  him  in  the 
same  picture  as  a  general  and  a  magistrate,  as  man  of  science, 
and  as  father  of  a  family,  but  would  prefer  to  paint  four  distinct 
portraits,  each  of  which  should  represent  him  in  one  of  these  char- 
acters— so  has  the  Holy  Spirit  preserved  for  mankind  the  perfect 
likeness  of  Him  who  was  its  chosen  representative.  God  in  man 
used  means  to  impress  upon  the  minds  of  the  writers  whom  He 
has  made  His  organs  four  different  images — the  King  of  Israel 
(Matthew) ;  the  Saviour  of  the  world  (Luke);  the  Son,  who  as  man 
mounts  to  the  steps  of  the  Divine  throne  (Mark)  ;  and  the  Son 
who  descends  into  humanity  to  sanctify  the  world  (John). 

The  single  object  which  is  represented  by  these  four  aspects  of 
the  glory  of  Jesus  Christ  could  not  be  presented  to  the  minds  of 
men  in  a  single  book  ;  it  could  not  be  so  in  the  form  under  which 
it  was  originally  embodied— that  of  a  life ;  first  in  the  Church- 
that  body  of  Christ  which  was  destined  to  contain  and  display  all 
the  fullness  which  dwelt  in  the  Head  ;  and  then  again  in  the  person 
of  each  individual  believer,  if  that  is  true  which  Jesus  said :  "Ye 
in  Me,  and  I  in  you";  and  we  are  each  of  us  called  to  make  the 
personality  of  Jesus  live  again  in  ourselves  in  all  the  rich  harmony 
of  His  perfection. 

In  the  Church,  then — in  you,  in  me — we  behold  the  living  syn- 
thesis which  were  to  be  the  result  of  that  wonderful  analyses  of 
the  person  of  Jesus  Christ  which  produced  our  several  Gospel  nar- 
ratives.   The  harmony  of  the  four  Gospels  is  something  better  than 
2* 


34  THE   QUESTION  OF  THE  DAY, 

but  an  account  of  the  planting  of  the  Church 
through  the  agency  of  the  two  great  Apos- 
tles, St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul.  The  Epistles  of 
the  New  Testament  are  not  formal  treatises 
on  questions  of  doctrine  and  discipline,  but 
letters  written  to  churches  throughout  the 
world  as  the  exigencies  of  the  occasion  de- 
manded, and  are  the  expression  of  the  voice 
of  the  Church  through  her  recognized  teach- 
ers on  matters  appertaining  to  Christian 
faith  and  practice.^     The  volume  of    reve- 

the  best  written  book  ;  it  is  the  nexu  man  to  be  formed  in  each 
believer. 

*  Will  any  one  ask  how  such  contrasts  could  arise  among  writ- 
ers equally  inspired  ?  The  question  itself  shows  how  well  the  idea 
of  inspiration  has  been  understood  in  the  Church,  and  what  a 
transformation  it  will  have  to  undergo.  Just  as  the  water  with 
which  we  water  the  seed  sown  in  the  ground  does  not  create  the 
plant  w^hich  grows  out  of  it,  but  stimulates  the  development  of 
the  organs  which  had  been  previously  found  in  the  germ,  and  sets 
their  power  in  action,  so  in  the  same  way  the  Holy  Spirit  does  not 
substitute  Himself  for  the  individuality  of  the  sacred  Author.  He 
awakens  his  faculties.  He  groups  his  experience,  He  places  him  in 
immediate  contact  with  salvation,  and  by  that  means  confers  upon 
him  a  special  gift — the  distinct  intuition  of  that  aspect  of  Gospel 
truth  which  answers  most  especially  to  his  own  character  and 
needs.  For,  as  M.  Reuss  admirably  says,  speaking  of  the  differ- 
ence of  the  sacred  writers,  "The  pole  which  attracted  the  mag- 


WHAT  IS  THE  BIBLE?  35 

lation  closes  with  the  Book  of  the  Revela- 
tion in  which  the  future  history  of  the  Church 
to  the  end  of  time  is  disclosed,  but  in  a  way 
not  to  interfere  with  human  liberty.  The 
Bible,  then,  is  no  common  book  ;  it  deals 
with  no  common  subject.  It  takes  for  granted 
a  Church  and  people  of  God  as  existing  in 
the  world  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of 
time,  and  reveals  to  us  the  ways  of  God  in 
His  relation  to  them.  Beyond  this,  the 
Bible  saith  not ;  and  no  man,  be  he  friend  or 
enemy,  has  the  right  to  quote  it  as  an  au- 
thority. 

netic  needle  of  the  sentiment,  or  of  their  intelligence,  was  not 
situated  for  all  in  the  same  point  in  the  sphere  of  revelation." — 
Godet. 


II. 


FOR    WHAT    OBJECT    WAS    THE 
BIBLE    WRITTEN? 


II, 


FOR  WHAT  OBJECT  WAS  THE 
BIBLE  WRITTEN? 


|0  this  it  may  be  answered,  the  word 
written  was  never  intended  to  take  the 
place  of  the  word  preached.  There  is  a 
Protestant  BibHolatry  that  is  as  bad  in 
its  way  as  Roman  Mariolatry.  When  a  man 
gives  it  as  an  excuse  for  not  going  to  church, 
that  he  can  stay  at  home  and  read  his  Bible, 
there  is  surely  a  monstrous  delusion  some- 
where. The  ear  as  the  instrument  of  hear- 
ing and  obedience,  not  the  eye,  as  the  symbol 
of  intelligence,  is  the  organ  of  conversion. 
Preaching  is  of  the  very  essence  of  Chris- 

39 


/ 


40  THE   QUESTION   OF    THE   DAY. 

tianity.  Jesus  conquers,  not  by  the  sword, 
but  by  the  Word.  His  kingdom  in  the  world 
is  founded  not  upon  force,  but  upon  moral 
suasion.  He  will  have  willing  disciples 
or  he  will  have  none.  His  first  effort  ever 
is  to  convince  the  reason  and  to  enthrall  the 
heart.  It  was  for  this  reason  that  he  went 
up  and  down  the  length  and  breadth  of  Judea, 
preaching  everywhere  the  Gospel.  He 
wrote  nothing.  Himself  the  truth,  He  spoke 
the  truth  to  men,  to  win  them  to  Himself,  and 
to  make  them  His  disciples.  He  gave  no 
commandment  to  His  Apostles  to  write.  They 
were  to  preach.  The  instrument  of  the 
spirit  in  working  conviction  in  the  minds  and 
hearts  of  men  was  to  be  a  man,  a  moral 
agent  speaking  as  man  to  men,  with  author- 
ity, and  filled  with  fire  from  on  high.  The 
Apostles  were  to  preach,  and  as  they  preached 
they  were  to  make  disciples.  It  was  not 
themselves  they  preached,  but  Christ  and 
Him  crucified.     It  is  so  now.     Preaching  is  a 


FOR   WHAT  WAS  THE  BIBLE   WRITTEN?     4 1 

divine  ordinance.  Nothing — not  even  the 
Bible — can  take  its  place,  as  the  instrument 
of  the  world's  conversion.  It  is  grossly  to 
abuse  and  not  to  use  the  Bible,  to  put  it  in 
the  place  of  the  living  instrument  which  God 
Himself  in  Christ  has  consecrated  and 
ordained.  The  Bible  is  of  infinite  value,  as 
a  witness  to  Christ.  It  can  never  take  the 
place  of  a  moral  agent  sanctified  and  filled 
with  the  Spirit,  in  drawing  men  to  Christ.* 

But  if  the  Bible  cannot  take  the  place 
of  the  living  teacher,  neither  can  It  take  the 
place  of  the  faithful  pastor  and  guide  of 
souls.  Quackery  is  not  in  our  days  con- 
fined to  religion.     There  are    book-makers 

*  Christian  preaching,  as  the  living  witness  for  Christ,  as  the 
living  proclamation  of  the  law  and  the  Gospel,  to  awaken  and 
strengthen  faith,  to  build  up  the  fellowship  of  the  world,  is  not 
merely  a  spontaneous  work  of  a  private  individual,  not  merely  an 
arrangement  made  by  the  Church.  It  rests  upon  the  command  of 
Christ  Himself.  The  command  of  Christ  for  preaching — "  Go  ye 
into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature" 
(Mark  xvi.  15) — relates  in  the  first  instance  to  missionary  work  ; 
but  the  newly  converted  ever  need  new  instruction  and  edifica- 
tion. "If  ye  continue  in  my  word  {""Edv  vi.ieI'^  /.lEivrjTE  iv  rep 
Xoyo)  T(p  iju(p  ),  then  are  ye  My  disciples  indeed,  and  ye  shall 


42  THE   QUESTION  OF   THE  DAY. 

who,  for  the  payment  of  a  dollar,  profess 
to  make  '*  every  man  his  own  doctor," 
''  every  man  his  own  lawyer,"  and  "  every 
woman  her  own  cook."  Happily  the  world 
has  not  gone  altogether  after  them  !  There 
are  people  left  who  still  believe  that  medi- 
cine encounters  hinderances  to  its  work- 
ing in  the  human  subject  besides  mere  physi- 
cal disease.  There  are  moral  conditions, 
peculiarities  of  temperament  and  of  habit, 
which  need  the  watchful  eye  and  the  con- 
stant care  of  a  good  physician.  Cookery 
learned  from  a  book  is  all  very  well  for  the 

know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free."  (John  viii.  31.) 
And  herein  is  clearly  implied  the  appointment  of  preaching,  as  a  per- 
manent and  constituent  part  of  Christian  worship,  just  as  we  hear 
from  the  Apostle  that  the  world  has  ordained  "  Pastors  and  Teach- 
ers" in  His  Church,  for  "  the  perfecting  of  the  Saints,  for  the 
edifying  of  the  body  of  Christ"  (Eph.  iv.  11,  12).  It  is  not  that 
they  are  merely  speakers  and  hearers  for  mutual  edification,  who 
edify  one  another  by  the  preaching  of  the  Word  ;  it  is  the  Lord 
Himself  who  builds  up  His  Church  by  the  means  of  grace.  As 
the  heaven-ascended  Saviour,  He  is  present  with  His  word  in  the 
power  of  His  spirit.  He  gives  to  the  preaching  its  due  authority 
and  its  proper  unction;  invisibly  He  works  together  with  His  preach- 
ers. "  They  went  forth  and  preached  everywhere,  the  Lord  work- 
ingwith  them.'"     (Mark  xvi.  20). — Martensen. 


FOR   WHAT  WAS   THE  BIBLE   WRITTEN?     43 

honeymoon,  but  it  will   not   stand  the  wear 
and  tear  of  ordinary  life.    So  it  is  also  in  the 
affairs  of  the  soul.     Jesus  gave   command- 
ment to  His  Apostles,  not  to  preach  only,  and 
make  disciples  in    His  Name  ;  they  were  to 
play  the  part    of   shepherds  to   the  lambs  ; 
were  to  feed  His  sheep.     They  were  rightly 
to  divide  the  word  of  truth,  and  give  to  each 
his  portion  of  meat   in  due   season.     Babes 
must  be  fed  on  milk  ;  strong  men  want  meat. 
The  Bible  takes  for  granted  an  order  of  men 
to  dispense  it.   It  was  given  X.o  fix'^'  the  oral 
tradition  of  the  Church,  not  to  take  the  place 
of  the  fundamental  Institutions  which  Christ 
her  Lord  had  Himself  established.    It  would 
be  as  reasonable  for  a  sick  man  to  substitute 
the  reading  of  a  book  for  the  taking  of  the 

*  Neither  hath  He  by  speech  only,  but  by  writing  also,  instruct- 
ed and  taught  His  Church.  The  cause  of  writing  hath  been  to  the 
end  that  things  by  him  revealed  unto  the  world  might  have  the 
longer  continuance,  and  the  greater  authority  of  assurance,  by  how 
much  that  standeth  on  record  hath,  in  both  those  respects,  pre- 
eminence above  that  which  passeth  from  hand  to  hand,  and  hath 
no  pens  but  the  tongues,  no  book  but  the  ears  of  men  to  record  it. 
— Hooker. 


44  THE   QUESTION  OF   THE  DAY. 

medicine  which  a  regular  physician  pre- 
scribed, and  expect  a  cure,  as  it  is  for  a  sinner 
to  put  the  reading  of  God's  Word  in  the  place 
of  the  sacraments  and  the  prescribed  means 
of  grace. 

We  now  reach  the  Ttpc^rov  ij^avdo^,  the 
prime  fallacy,  of  modern  criticism.  If  there 
be  one  truth  to  which  the  Bible  bears  witness 
more  than  another,  it  is  that  God  has  never 
left  men  to  themselves,  and  to  the  state  of 
nature,  as  it  is  called,  to  seek  after  Him,  if 
haply  they  might  find  Him.  Before  man 
ever  fell,  if  the  Bible  be  true,  God  took  man 
out  of  the  state  of  nature  and  put  him  into 
a  state  of  grace.  When  God  made  the 
world.  He  did  not  leave  the  world  and  man 
to  Fortune  or  to  blind  Fate.  He  who  made 
the  world  for  man,  prepared  for  man  a  special 
seat  and  habitation,  where  He  revealed  Him- 
self to  man  by  the  Angel  of  His  presence, 
and  entered  into  the  communion  with  Him. 
The  world  was  created  to  be  the  sphere  of 


FOR   WHAT  WAS   THE  BIBLE   WRITTEN?      45 

man's  moral  development.  From  the  mo- 
ment that  development  began,  God  entered 
into  history;  and  Himself  took  the  direction 
of  things  into  His  own  hands.  He  did  it  in 
a  way,  too,  not  to  interfere  with  man's  free 
will,  and  sense  of  personal  responsibility. 
He  bestowed  His  grace,  not  directly,  but 
through  sacramental  channels,  as  in  the 
tree  of  life.  After  creating  things  anew, 
He  withdrew  Himself  and  made  men  His 
ministers.  If,  through  human  weakness  or 
frailty.  His  purpose  was  thwarted,  or  His 
hopes  in  selecting  certain  instruments  disap- 
pointed; or  His  institutions  through  way- 
wardness or  wickedness  perverted,  still  He 
never  abandoned  the  world  in  despair  :  He 
modified  His  plan  ;  He  chose  new  in- 
struments ;  He  created  new  agencies  ;  He 
adapted  His  institutions  to  meet  new  exigen- 
cies. It  has  been  so  the  ages  all  along  for 
six  thousand  years  ;  it  will  be  so.  He  prom- 
ises us,  to  the  end.     To  all  this,  the  Bible  is 


46  THE   QUESTION  OF   THE  DAY. 

the  witness.  It  is  for  this  we  esteem  it  as 
more  precious  than  gold  of  Ophir  ;  it  is  the 
book  of  books,  in  value  and  in  importance, 
beyond  all  price.  But  how  does  modern 
criticism  deal  with  it  ?  It  would  have  us, 
first  of  all,  reject,  as  of  no  value,  the  witness 
of  the  men  who  were  most  interested  in  pre- 
serving the  Sacred  Scriptures  with  scrupu- 
lous care  and  fidelity.  It  would  have  us  be- 
lieve these  men  knew  nothing  about  the  real 
value  of  Holy  Scriptures,  or  the  true  nature 
of  their  contents.  We  are  to  believe,  accord- 
ing to  Kalisch  and  others,  that  institutions 
were  not  founded  when  it  is  said  they  were, 
because  they  were  not  at  once  acknowledged, 
and  in  every  detail  recognized,  according  to 
their  value.  The  law,  as  written  in  the 
Pentateuch,  could  not  have  been  given,  we 
are  told  with  charming  simplicity,  because  it 
was  not  kept.  The  Pentateuch  must  belong 
to  a  later  age,  because  its  provisions  were  not 
complied  with,  or  fully  carried  out,  until  the 


FOR   WHAT  WAS   THE  BIBLE   WRITTEN?     47 

time  of  the  Babylonish  captivity.  Now 
what  is  all  this  but  to  deny  the  very  princi- 
ple on  which  Divine  Revelation  goes  from 
the  beeinninor  to  the  end  ?  It  is  to  take  a 
positive  Gentile  and  heathen  notion,  and  to 
substitute  it  for  that  which  is  its  opposite, 
and  then  measure  things  accordingly.  God 
indeed  left  the  Gentiles  to  their  own  way  ; 
He  allowed  them  to  develop  as  they  could 
their  religion  out  their  own  inner  conscious- 
ness, to  the  end  that  they  might,  in  time, 
come  to  the  knowledge  of  their  ignorance, 
and  learn  by  experience  their  folly  :  but  in 
the  case  of  the  Jews,  He  gave  them  their 
religion  at  the  start.  He  planned  for  them 
their  fundamental  institutions  ;  and  He  did 
it  with  a  view  to  educate  them  by  presenting 
to  them,  from  the  outset,  an  ideal  which 
He  well  knew  they  could  never  carry  out  in 
all  its  fullness,  or  hope  to  attain  unto  as  a 
rule  of  life  and  conduct.  Holy  Scriptures 
themselves  bear  witness  in  every  instance  to 


48  THE   QUESTION  OF   THE  DAY. 

this  failure  ;  and  they  do  so  for  the  purpose 
of  showing  how  the  very  shortcomings  of 
God's  ancient  people  were  all  the  time  bring- 
ing them  nearer  and  nearer  to  Him  who 
alone  could  fulfill  the  law  in  its  integrity,  and 
make  it  to  be,  not  in  the  letter,  but  in  the 
spirit,  a  rule  of  life.  Holy  Scripture,  as 
Archbishop  Trench  in  his  Hulsean  Lectures 
has  well  said,  ''  is  the  history  of  men  in 
a  constitution — of  men  not  seeking  relations 
with  God,  but  having  them,  and  whose  task 
is  now  to  believe  i7t  them  and  to  m^aintain 
themr  If  this  be  so,  then  the  Bible  is 
of  no  saving  value  without  the  Church.  It 
was  written  for  men  ''  not  seeking  relations 
with  God,  but  having  them  ;  whose  task  it  is 
now  to  believe  in  them  and  maintain  them." 
It  is  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  world,  how 
this  fundamental  truth  should  be  written  on 
every  page  of  the  Bible,  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end,  and  yet  so  many  never  see  it 
there  or  take  it  in  so  as  to  believe  in  it. 


III. 

HOW  IS    THE    BIBLE     TO    BE 
READ  ? 


III. 

HOW  IS  THE  BIBLE  TO  BE 
READ? 


T  is  to  be  read  as  one  book,  and  can 
never  be  divided  into  two.  Spiritual 
things  are  to  be  spiritually  discerned.  The 
Old  Testament  is  the  true  and  only  key  to  the 
New.  One  or  two  illustrations  will  make 
our  meaning  plain.  Modern  science  has 
discovered  that  there  is  an  archetypal  plan 
in  nature.  There  is  a  general  plan,  and 
there  are  special  adaptations'^'*  all  the  way 
through.  Not  only  is  the  one  not  opposed 
to  the  other,  but  the  one  is  to  some  extent 

*  McCosh  on  "Typical  Forms  and  Special  Ends  in  Creation." 
Chap.  II. 

51 


52  THE    QUESTION  OF   THE  DAY. 

the  outcome  of  the  other.  The  fin  of  the 
fish  and  the  wing  of  the  bird  are  the  homo- 
loofues  of  the  arm  of  the  man  :  each  is 
adapted  to  do  its  work  in  its  own  peculiar 
sphere.  Nature,  so  to  speak,  tried  her 
*'  ^prentice  hand "  on  the  one  before  she 
attempted  the  other.  The  fish  cam^e  first, 
the  bird  after,  the  man  last,  as  the  perfec- 
tion of  all — the  crown  and  glory  of  all 
created  forms.  So  is  it  in  the  economy  of 
grace.  Eve,  when  Cain  was  born,  thought 
she  had  brousfht  forth  the  Redeemer  of  the 
world ;  she  cried  in  the  simplicity  of  her 
faith  :  ''  I  have  gotten  a  man,  the  Lord."  She 
believed  in  the  promise,  and  was  saved  just 
as  we  are,  by  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  ;  but 
her  faith  needed  to  be  educated,  and  she 
had  to  learn  by  sad  and  painful  experience 
that  the  Redeemer  is  to  come  not  in  the 
way  of  nature,  but  is  to  be  as  Sethwas,  ''  an- 
other seed,"  a  gift  of  grace.  Sarah  learned 
the  same  lesson,  but  in  another  way.     She 


HO IV  IS    THE  BIBLE    TO   BE  READ? 


53 


too  had  faith,  although  she  laughed  when 
the  promise  at  first  was  given,  when  it  was 
long  in  coming.  She  gave  Hagar  to  Abra- 
ham, and  had  a  slave-born  child,  if  not  the 
heir  of  promise.  She  was  punished  for  her 
sin,  but  got  the  child  of  promise  at  last,  if 
not  In  a  natural,  in  a  supernatural  way.  It 
is  the  old  story  of  Eve,  but  in  another  fash- 
ion. Look  at  it  again  :  Abel  was  killed  out 
of  pride  by  a  brother's  hand ;  Isaac,  the  child 
of  hope  long  deferred,  was  given  by  his 
father  a  sacrifice  over  unto  death.  So  In 
latter  days,  one  was  slain  out  of  envy,  and 
because  his  spirit  of  meek  surrender  was  of 
more  value  In  God's  sight,  than  works  done 
in  a  spirit  of  pride  and  self-conceit.  He  who 
was  thus  killed  by  wicked  hands  w^s  given 
over  by  his  father  a  willing  sacrifice  unto 
death  ;  and  His  seed  has  become  as  the 
stars  of  heaven  for  multitude.  Is  there 
any  possible  connection  between  one  thing 
and  another?      Read   the    story  of  Joseph 


54  THE   QUESTION  OF   THE  DAY. 

He  was  the  child  of  Rachel,  and  came, 
like  Isaac,  after  other  experiments  had 
been  tried  and  failed,  and  was  an  answer  to 
prayer,  and  a  gift  of  grace.  Joseph,  too,  was 
hated  of  his  brethren,  and  was  sold  by  them, 
and  was  given  over  unto  death.  But  he 
came  out  of  the  pit,  and  was  lifted  from  a 
prison  to  the  throne,  and  was  made  lord  over 
the  whole  land  of  Egypt ;  and  the  command 
was  given  that  every  knee  should  bow  be- 
fore him.  It  is  the  same  fundamental  type, 
but  with  variations  and  new  adaptations. 
Can  it  have  any  reference  to  One  who  in 
after  times  was  hated  of  his  brethren,  and  was 
sold,  and  was  taken  from  the  pit  and  the 
prison-house  to  be  lord  and  ruler  over  all, 
to  whom  every  knee  is  to  bow  and  every 
tongue  confess  that  He  is  Lord  to  the 
glory  of  God  the  Father  ? 

But  we  are  in  a  new  sphere,  and  a  new 
order  is  round  about  us.  The  old  covenant 
was  established  in  a  trinity  of  persons,  who 


HO IV  IS   THE  BIBLE    TO  BE  BEAD?  55 

held  peculiar  relations  one  to  the  other. 
Abraham  was  the  high  father,  who  through 
his  only  begotten  and  well  beloved  son,  be- 
came, by  faith,  the  father  of  many  nations. 
Isaac  was  the  incarnation  of  meekness,  and 
obedience  itself ;  and  Jacob  was  a  supplanter 
and  a  wrestler  with  God,  a  builder  of  houses 
consecrated  to  worship,  and  the  head  of  the 
twelve  tribes  of  Israel.  Is  it  more  than  possi- 
ble that  we  have  foreshadowed  here  another 
and  a  better  covenant  ?  Do  we  see  the 
beginning  of  the  adjustment  of  the  relations 
of  another  Trinity ;  have  intimations  given  of 
another  Wrestler  and  Supplanter ;  note  the 
coming  of  another  Builder  and  Consecrator ; 
and  are  made  to  anticipate  the  Progenitor 
of  another  twelve  and  seventy.  In  ages  yet  to 
come  ?  And  if  so,  why  does  God  take  this 
way  of  preparing  the  world's  "  gray  fathers  " 
for  the  advent  of  the  world's  Redeem- 
er ?  The  possible  solution  of  the  mystery  is 
that  these  ancient  patriarchs,  in  the  simplicity 


56  THE   QUESTION  OF   THE  DAY. 

of  their  faith,  and  their  feebleness  of  spirit- 
ual apprehension,  were  after  all  but  beginners 
in  a  training-school.  These  pictures  which 
pass  before  us  with  all  their  wonderful  sim- 
ilarity in  diversity,  repeating  the  story  over 
and  over  again  with  adaptations  and  constant 
filling  in,  were  after  all  like  our  own  Kinder- 
£-arUn  object  lessons,  where  sense  apprehends 
by  means  of  the  eye,  and  touch,  and  use, 
the  things  which  the  logical  faculty  and 
the  spiritual  powers  of  the  soul,  when  fully 
developed,  are  to  grasp  in  the  form  of  super- 
natural truth.  Christ  and  His  Church  are 
the  development  and  growth  of  the  Old 
Testament  and  its  history,  just  as  man  and 
nature  are  the  growth  of  centuries,  and  were 
seen  in  archetypal  light  long  before  the 
world  as  it  now  is  appeared.  If  it  be  the 
work  of  the  true  philosopher,  as  Lord  Bacon 
says,  to  interpret  nature,  it  is  none  the  less 
the  work  of  the  theologian  to  trace  the  plan 
hidden  in  the  Old  Testament  from  stage  to 


HO IV  IS    THE  BIBLE    TO   BE   READ?  57 

Stage,  and  show  its  completion  and  fulfillment 
in  the  New.  It  may  safely  be  affirmed  that 
no  system  of  theology  is  worth  a  fig  which 
does  not  accept  as  a  fundamental  maxim  that 
spiritual  things  are  to  be  spiritually  discerned, 
and  makes  use  of  the  things  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament as  object  lessons,  to  unlock  the  mys- 
teries of  the  New. 

The  Bible,  to  be  read  with  profit,  must  be 
read  in  the  order  in  which  it  is  arranged  in 
the  Canon,  and  not  according  to  any  system 
of  chronology,  or  natural  selection.  The  law 
as  given  in  the  Pentateuch  is  the  basis  of  the 
whole  revelation,  but  it  is  not  as  the  Samari- 
tans or  the  Sadducees  held,  the  whole  of  reve- 
lation. The  Law  is  supplemented  by  the 
Prophets  as  the  objective  by  subjective,  the 
factual  (if  we  may  be  allowed  the  word)  and 
institutional  by  the  critical  and  the  progress- 
ive. If  we  were  to  judge  of  the  condition 
of  any  country  by    the  morning  papers,  we 

should  think  the  world  was  drawing  near  its 
3* 


58  THE   QUESTION  OF   THE  DAY. 

close.  The  liberty  of  the  press  is  a  priceless 
heritage,  although  it  does  not  always  meas- 
ure with  exactness  of  speech  the  evils  it  seeks 
to  correct.  So  with  the  Prophets  ;  they  were 
sent  to  enforce  the  great  and  all-important 
truth  that  God  looks  for  more  than  outward 
service  ;  He  expects  purity  of  heart,  as  well  as 
purity  of  hands  and  feet.  No  gift  is  of  any 
value  to  Him  where  the  giver  is  not  one  with 
the  offering.  Priest  and  king  have  no  honor 
save  as  they  represent  Him,  and  use  the 
power  committed  to  them  for  the  good  of 
those  for  whom  it  was  given.  These  are 
surely  eternal,  imperishable  truths ;  they  are 
the  truths  which  Wicklif  and  Hus  preached 
in  modern  times ;  but  they  are  perverted 
.  when  it  is  forgotten  that  it  is  against  the 
abuse  and  not  against  the  use  of  the  things 
contained  in  the  law  they  are  directed.  God 
cannot  contradict  Himself;  what  He  doeth 
He  doeth  it  forever.  The  Law,  the  Priest- 
hood,   the    Altar,    Sacrificial    Ordinances — 


HO IV  IS    THE  BIBLE    TO  BE  READ?         59 

• 

Kings,  Judges,  Rulers — are  all  the  ordinance 
of  God  and  are  to  be  obeyed  as  His  ;  they  are 
all,  however,  means  to  an  end,  and  that  end  is 
one,  though  double  in  its  working,  viz.,  the 
good  of  the  creature  and  the  glory  of  the 
Creator.* 

The  Hagiographa,  in  contradistinction  to 
the  law  and  the  prophets,  is  mystical  and  spirit- 
ual in  its  application.  Here  the  ordinary 
economic  conditions  which  are  of  force  in  the 
earlier  stashes  of  the  Divine  life  are  swallowed 
up  of  the  supernatural  and  the  eternal.  The 
mighty  stream  of  the  Church's  devotional  and 

*  "  While  the  calling  of  the  priest  seeks  to  realize  the  letter  of  the 
law,  that  of  the  px^ophet  endeavors  to  realize  its  spirit.  The  proph- 
ets  in  general  demand  obedience  to  God's  will  as  revealed  in  His 
laws,  and  are  fond  of  emphasizing  the  pre-Mosaic  and  decalogue 
command  respecting  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  ;  but  Malachi's 
censure  with  reference  to  the  malobservance  of  the  sacrificial  Torah 
(i.  10,  etc.)  stands  absolute  and  alone.  In  eveiy  case  the  exhorta- 
tions of  the  prophets  do  not  refer  to  the  externals,  but  to  the  sub- 
stance of  the  law.  They  are  zealous  against  the  heartless  and 
spiritless  opus  operatum  of  dead  works.  With  biting  sarcasm  they 
depreciate  ceremonial  observance  and  fasting  (Hosea  vi.  6 ; 
Jeremiah  vii.  21-23  ;  Joel  ii.  13  ;  Isaiah  Iviii).  In  brief  the  priest 
is  the  guardian  of  the  external  letter  of  the  law,  and  the  prophet  of 
the  internal,  spiritual  fulfillment." — Delitzsch. 


6o  THE   QUESTION  OF   THE  DAY. 

spiritual  life  broadens  and  ripens,  until  it 
embraces  Gentile  as  well  as  Jew ;  and  breaks 
away  beyond  the  barriers  of  time,  and  space, 
and  economic  dispensation,  carrying  along 
with  it  all  that  is  richest  and  best  in  the  ex- 
perience of  devout  souls  in  every  country 
and  of  every  kind.* 

*  "  The  tendency  of  the  age  of  Solomon  in  relation  to  the  tend- 
ency of  that  of  David,  may  be  compared  to  the  tendency  of  Alex- 
andrian Judaism,  in  relation  to  that  of  the  Palestinian.  It  is  di- 
rected to  the  human,  the  ideal,  and  the  universal  elements  in 
Israel's  religion  and  history,  and  connects  the  essence  of  the  Is- 
raelitish  religion  with  the  elements  of  truth  in  heathenism.  As 
knowledge  {gnosis)  goes  forth  from  faith  {pistis)  so  the  age  of 
Solomon  is  the  new  age  of  wisdom  {chokma)  which  has  gone  forth 
from  David.  While  prophecy  serves  the  process  of  redemptive 
history,  chokma  hastens  before  it  and  anticipates  the  univerfal 
ideas,  through  which  the  adaptation  of  the  religion  of  Jehovah  to 
become  the  religion  of  the  world  is  recognized." — Delitzsch. 

To  the  same  purport  Godet  says :  "  It  is  beyond  dispute 
that,  under  the  influence  of  the  genius  of  Solomon,  there  grew 
up  in  his  court  a  school  of  wisdom^  or  of  moral  philosophy, 
and  that  this  phenomenon  was  in  Israel  a  fact  of  an  alto- 
gether new  kind.  Whilst  the  Levitical  institutions  performed 
their  functions  regularly,  and  the  Mosaic  ordinances  were  more 
and  more  impressing  their  stamp  upon  the  life  of  the  people, 
the  leading  minds,  with  the  King  Himself  at  their  head,  were  feel- 
ing the  necessity  of  searching  more  deeply  into  the  knowledge  of 
things,  divine  and  human.  Beneath  the  Israelite,  they  tried  to 
find  the  man  ;  beneath  the  Mosaic  system,  that  universal  principle 
of  the  moral  law,  of  which  it  is  the  perfect  expression.     Then  they 


\ 


HOW  IS    THE  BIBLE    TO   BE  READ?  6 1 

If  we  would  read  the  New  Testament  with 
profit,  we  must  remember  at  the  outset  that 
the  Gospel  Is  to  be  sought  for  not  in  any  one 
Gospel,  but  in  all  the  four  Gospels  combined. 
We  have  four  differing,  but  not  contra- 
dictory, aspects  of  our  Lord's  life  presented 
for  consideration.  We  view  the  mystery  of 
His  Divine-human  personality  on  all  its  four 
sides,  as  a  complete  manifestation  of  God- 
head, through  the  medium  of  humanity  to 
the  whole  world.  We  see  Him  first,  as  the 
Jews  thought  about  Him  and  looked  for 
Him.  We  see  Him  again  as  the  Romans 
received  Him,  not  so  much  as  a  Teacher  as 
an  Actor,  and  the  Founder  of  a  universal 
kingdom  in  the  world.     We  see  Him  again 

reached  to  that  idea  of  wisdom  which  is  the  common  feature  of  the 
three  books,  Proverbs,  Job,  and  Ecclesiastes.  The  Divine  wisdom 
in  the  idea  of  which  are  included  the  notions  of  intelligence,  jus- 
tice, and  goodness,  is  personified  as  the  supreme  object  of  Divine 
love,  and  as  the  spirit  which  gives  existence  and  order  to  the 
world  ;  this  wisdom  has  marked  with  her  stamp  everything  in  the 
universe  ;  her  delight  is  not  in  the  Jews  only,  but  in  the  children 
of  men.  To  conform  to  her  laws,  is  for  man  wisdom  ;  to  act 
against  them  folly." 


62  THE   QUESTION  OF   THE  DAY. 

in  His  relationship  to  the  world  at  large,  and 
to  the  outcast  sinners  of  the  Gentiles,  the 
Seeker  of  the  lost,  and  the  Healer  of  the  sick, 
and  the  Provider  of  an  inn  for  the  wayfarers 
spoiled  and  robbed  by  the  wayside.  Last  of 
all,  we  see  Him  as  the  Eternal  Archetype, 
the  Light  that  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh 
into  the  world,  taking  humanity  into  union 
with  Divinity,  that  He  might,  by  entering 
into  the  conditions  of  time  and  mortality,  fill 
it  with  the  fullness  of  His  own  uncreated 
and  eternal  life. 

Like  the  Law  in  the  old  dispensation,  the 
Gospel  is  only  the  beginning,  not  the  end 
of  all  that  Jesus  began  both  to  do  and  to 
teach.  Here  we  see  Him  creating  and  call- 
ing into  being  things  that  were  not.  In  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles  we  see  Him  from  His 
eternal  throne,  operating  in  and  through  His 
Church  ;  and  by  virtue  of  the  unction  be- 
stowed upon  Him  in  return  for  His  finished 
works,  doing  greater  works  than  any  which 


no  IF  IS   THE  BIBLE    TO  BE   READ?         63 

in  His  own  Person  He  had  done  while  here 
upon  the  earth.  The  Acts  supplement  the 
Gospels.  Here  w^e  see  fulfilled  what  was 
promised'  there.  Jesus  came  not  to  make 
disciples  only,  but  to  found  and  establish 
a  kingdom  also.  Now  we  see  Him  as  a 
King  upon  His  throne,  and  witness  in  the 
new  spirit  infused  into  the  Apostles  the 
secret  of  the  power  that  has  made  the 
Church  triumphant  over  the  world.  The 
Epistles  are  as  many-sided  as  the  Gospels. 
Here,  Peter  and  John  and  James  apply  the 
lessons  learned  of  Jesus  in  their  familiar 
intercourse  with  Him  for  the  guidance  and 
instruction  of  the  Church.  Paul,  as  one  born 
out  of  due  time,  arises  to  meet  the  wants 
of  the  Church  when  it  overleaped  the  bound- 
aries of  Jerusalem  and  the  Holy  Land, 
and  becran  to  embrace  the  Gentiles  within 
its  bosom.  The  whole  is  crowned  with  the 
Book  of  the  Revelation  where  "  the  heaven 
which     had    disappeared    from     the     earth 


64  THE   QUESTION  OF   THE  DAY. 

since  the  third  chapter  of  Genesis  re-ap- 
pears again  in  visible  manifestation.  The 
tree  of  life,  whereof  there  were  but  faint 
reminiscences  all  the  intermediate  time, 
again  stands  by  the  river  of  the  water  of  life, 
and  again  there  is  no  more  curse.  Even  the 
very  differences  of  the  forms  under  which  the 
heavenly  kingdom  re-appears  are  doubly 
characteristic,  marking  as  they  do  not  mere- 
ly all  that  is  won  back,  but  won  back  in  a 
more  glorious  shape  than  that  in  which  it 
was  lost,  because  won  back  by  the  Son.  It 
is  no  longer  Paradise,  but  the  New  Jerusa- 
lem— no  longer  the  Garden,  but  now  the  City 
of  God,  which  is  on  earth.  The  change  is 
full  of  meaning :  no  longer  the  garden,  free, 
spontaneous,  and  unlabored,  even  as  man's 
blessedness  in  the  first  estate  of  innocence 
would  have  been  ;  but  the  City,  costlier  in- 
deed, more  stately,  more  glorious,  but  at  the 
same  time  the 'result  of  toil,  of  labor,  of 
pains — reared  into  a  nobler  and  more  abiding 


HO IV  IS    THE  BIBLE    TO  BE  READ?        65 

habitation,  yet  with  stones  which,  after  the 
pattern  of  the  'elect  corner  stone,'  were 
each,  in  its  turn,  laboriously  hewn  and  pain- 
fully squared  for  the  places  which  they  fill."  " 
It  will  be  seen  that  the  Bible  is  not  only 
one  book  as  the  revelation  of  God's  eternal 
plan,  but  is  likewise  a  complete  and  organic 
whole  in  which  part  is  dovetailed,  by  an  all- 
pervading  law  of  spiritual  growth  and  devel- 
opment, into  part.  The  Old  Testament  is 
the  preparation  for  the  New,  and  the  New  is 
the  fulfilling  of  the  OJd.  What  if  there  be 
ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  various 
readings  ;  what  if  through  ''  redactions  "  and 
adjustments  for  ecclesiastical  purposes,  parts 
have  been  transposed,  or  additions  here  and 
there  made  ;  what  if  St.  Paul  did  not  write 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews ;  let  ingenuity 
and  perverse  criticism  twist  and  turn  things 
as  they  may,  these  are  but  scratches  on  the 
surface  of  a  Book  which,  the  more  one  reads 

*  Trench. 


66  THE   QUESTION  OF   THE  DAY. 

it,  the  more  they  stand  amazed  at  its  awful 
depth,  and  are  at  times  ready  to  fall  prostrate 
in  the  presence  of  the  all-informing  Spirit 
Who  there  reveals  to  those  who  have  the  eyes 
to  see  the  workings  of  God's  eternal  plan. 

The  Bible,  moreover,  is  Its  own  best  Inter- 
preter. One  of  the  coming  devises  of  the  later 
criticism  is  to  compare  the  Bible  with  other 
(so  called)  scriptures,  and  in  this  way  try  to 
rob  It  of  everything  like  a  peculiarly  distinc- 
tive character.  Lenormant  furnishes  us  with 
'*  The  Beginnings  of  History  according  to  the 
Bible  and  the  Traditions  of  Oriental  Peoples 
from  the  Creation  of  Man  to  the  Deluge,"  and 
another  treats  us  to  ''The  Sacred  Scriptures 
of  the  World,"  etc.,  etc.*  Now,  It  Is  to  be 
granted  that  the  Bible  has  much  in  common 
with  other  books,  whether  sacred  or  profane  ; 
It  Is  to  be  maintained,  notwithstanding  that 
the  Bible  is  a  book  stti  generis,  and  from  the 

*  See  an  able  review  of  *'  Sacred  Scriptures  of  the  World,"  etc., 
in  the  Am.  Lit.  Churchman,  for  May  i,  1883. 


HO IV  IS   THE  BIBLE    TO   BE  READ?  67 

beginning  to  the  end,  follows  a  purpose  and 
a  plan  peculiarly  its  own.  Other  books  and 
other  religions  have  accounts  of  the  creation 
of  the  world,  as  well  as  the  Bible  ;  but  there 
is  in  the  Biblical  account  a  something  which 
is  not  to  be  found  in  any.  It  was  the 
tmtversal  belief  of  the  ancient  world  that 
matter  is  eternal.  The  Bible,  on  the  other 
hand,  affirms  that  God  called  the  matter  of 
the  world  into  being,  as  well  as  gave  to  every- 
thing that  exists  its  peculiar  form.  The 
first  chapter  of  Genesis  and  the  first  article 
of  the  Creed  are  in  perfect  harmony  one 
with  another.  It  Is  also  peculiar  to  the 
Bible  that  it  speaks  of  God  as  creating  all 
things  by  His  word,  and  through  the  in- 
breathing of  His  Holy  Spirit.  This  is  an 
idea  that  pervades  all  Holy  Scriptures,  and  is 
as  true  of  the  New  Creation  in  Christ  Jesus, 
as  it  is  of  the  Old  Creation  of  which  the  first 
Adam  was  the  crown.  It  is  also  peculiar  to 
the  Biblical  story  that  the  account  of  the  nat- 


68  THE   QUESTION  OF   THE  DAY. 

ural  creation  is  only  the  introduction  to  a 
series  of  productions  or  origins,  in  which  God 
appears,  not  as  the  Maker  of  the  world  only, 
but  as  a  Person  who  lives  and  moves  in  his- 
tory, and  holds  personal  communion  and  fel- 
lowship with  the  sons  of  men.  The  Book  of 
Genesis  is  not,  as  Its  title  would  at  first  seem 
to  Indicate,  a  mere  account  of  the  creation 
of  the  world,  but  is  made  up  of  ten  toledothsy 
or  successions  of  creative  acts  in  which  God 
is  represented  as  laying  in  the  world  the 
foundations  of  an  eternal  plan,  which  is  to 
find  its  consummation  at  the  last  in  the  in- 
carnation of  His  own  Eternal  Son,  and  in  the 
establishment  of  a  kingdom  that  Is  to  endure 
forever.  It  Is  not  In  vain,  then,  that  the  ac- 
count of  the  first  creation  is  repeated  in  a 
second  and  supplementary  chapter  of  this 
same  book  of  Genesis.  The  heavens  and 
the  earth  do  not  exist  for  themselves  ;  they 
were  not  Intended  only  to  display  the  glory 
of  their  Creator  ;  they  were  created  to  be  the 


HOW  IS   THE  BIBLE    TO  BE  READ?  69 

Sphere  of  the  moral  development  of  the  hu- 
man race  ;  and  of  the  union  of  God  and  man 
in  connection  with  It.  It  is  for  this  reason 
man  made  with  a  mere  distinction  of  sex 
in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  appears  in  the 
form  of  a  twofold  personality  in  the  second. 
It  is  for  the  same  reason  Elohim,  the  sum 
and  source  of  all  power,  the  world's  great 
First  Cause,  is  represented  under  a  personal 
name,  Jehovah,  and  condescends  to  talk  with 
man  as  friend  with  friend,  face  to  face.  This 
idea  of  a  twofold  relationship  of  God  to 
man,  and  of  man  to  God,  is  an  idea  which 
runs  throughout  all  Holy  Scripture,  from 
first  to  last,  and  is  peculiar  to  Itself.  It  Is 
not  to  be  accounted  for  by  a  theory  like  that 
of  Astruc  (known  as  the  document-hypothe- 
sis), but  by  the  fact  that  man  on  his  earthly 
side  Is  part  and  parcel  of  nature,  and  Is  gov- 
erned by  the  law  of  cause  and  effect  ac- 
cordingly, while  on  his  heavenly  side  he 
is,  by  the  fact  of  his   personality  and   free 


70  THE   QUESTION  OF    THE  DAY, 

agency,  lifted  above  all  earthly  powers,  and 
made  capable  of  entering  into  communion 
and  fellowship  with  the  eternal  I  am.  The  as- 
sertion, then,  that  in  the  twofold  account  of 
the  creation,  given  in  the  first  and  second 
chapters  of  Genesis,  we  have  one  representa- 
tion, made  up  out  of  two  separate  and  con- 
tradictory sets  of  documents  (as  asserted  by 
the  rationalistic  school),  is  seen  to  be  at  vari- 
ance with  the  whole  drift  of  Divine  Revela- 
tion. The  notion  that  any  man,  gifted  with 
common  sense,  could  deliberately  sit  down 
to  compile  a  history  from  two  sets  of  docu- 
ments at  variance,  one  with  the  other,  and 
call  it  a  revelation  from  God,  is  simply  too 
monstrous  for  rational  belief,  and  yet  it  is  this 
that  we  are  asked  to  receive  at  the  hands  of 
the  later  criticism. 

Again  we  are  told  that  every  mythology 
has  its  golden  age,  just  as  the  Bible  has  its 
story  of  Paradise  and  the  age  of  innocence. 
There  is  enough  in  the  statement  to  catch 


HO IV  IS   THE  BIBLE    TO  BE  READ?  7 1 

the  unwary,  especially  when  served  up  with 
a  show  of  learning  about  Kritayuga,  ''  the 
age  of  perfection,"  and  Dvparayuga,  "  the 
age  of  doubt,"  and  Kallyuga,  ''  the  age  of 
"perdition,"  as  in  the  Aryan  tradition.  But 
the  correspondence  here,  as  elsewhere.  Is 
only  on  the  surface.  The  Biblical  idea  of 
Paradise,  as  It  appears  in  the  Jehovlstic 
account  of  the  Creation,  Is  essentially  a  sac- 
ramcntal  Idea,  and  not  a  state  of  nature  at 
all.  The  Bible,  in  other  words,  represents 
the  state  of  nature,  described  In  the  first 
chapter  of  the  Book  of  Genesis,  as  a  state 
not  natural  to  man,  but  to  the  lower  creat- 
ures ;  out  of  which  man  was,  was  taken 
by  a  special  act  of  grace,  and  was  placed 
amid  moral  relationships,  and  was  sur- 
rounded with  sacramental  signs  and  symbols 
which  were  intended  to  have  an  educational 
effect  upon  him.  The  lower  creatures  are 
allowed  to  have  Indiscriminate  concubln- 
aee   one  with   another;  man    is    not.     The 


72  THE   QUESTION  OF    THE   DAY. 

brute  creation  may  eat  of  everything  to 
the  full ;  man  must  place  a  restraint  on 
appetite  if  he  will  raise  himself  to  partici- 
pation in  a  higher  life.  It  is  from  this  point, 
history  takes  its  start,  and  why?  Because 
man  in  the  state  of  nature  has  no  history. 
He  must  subject  himself  to  moral  conditions 
before  history  can  begin.  History  begins 
after  the  moral  struggle  w^hich  marks  the 
epoch  of  the  fall.  Now  all  this  again  is 
peculiar  to  Holy  Scriptures;  it  is  part  and 
parcel,  moreover,  of  a  class  of  ideas  which 
have  here  their  germ,  and  which  continue 
to  germinate  and  develop  through  all  suc- 
ceeding dispensations  to  the  .close  of  the 
Book  of  Revelation. 

It  will  be  seen,  at  a  glance,  that  in 
this  twofold  account  of  the  creation  of  man, 
and  of  the  relation  which  God  bears  to  him, 
in  the  one  state  or  in  the  other,  we  have  the 
foundation  laid  for  the  later  division  of  the 
human  family  into  Jews  and  Gentiles ;  and 

4 


HOJV  IS   THE  BIBLE    TO  BE  READ?  73 

the  determination  of  the  Divine  relations 
accordingly.  The  Gentiles  represent  that 
portion  of  the  race  which  fall  away  into  the 
state  of  nature,  and  worship  the  powers  of 
nature,  and  are  debased  as  a  consequence 
thereof  ;  the  Jews  are  those  who  exist  in  a 
state  of  separation  from  the  world,  and 
worship,  not  the  God  of  Nature,  but  the 
personal  Jehovah,  who  manifests  Himself  by 
the  angel  of  His  presence  to  them.  They 
abhor  fornication,  and  keep  with  religious  ex- 
actness the  unity  of  the  marriage  bond  (as 
an  ideal  at  least)  ;  they  perpetuate  in  the 
world  the  idea  of  a  God  who  is  separate 
from  nature  ;  and  Who  speaks  to  men  by  the 
agency  of  His  word,  and  educates  them  by 
the  instrumentality  of  His  Holy  Spirit.  If 
it  be  true,  then,  that  the  Bible  has  some 
things  in  common  with  other  religions,  and 
with  other  books  ;  it  is  also  true  that  it 
moves  in  a  circle  of  ideas  peculiarly  its  own. 
If  we  would   read  and  study  it  aright,   we 


74  THE   QUESTION  OF   THE  DAY. 

must  make  it  our  aim,  not  so  much  to  search 
out  what  It  has  in  common  with  other  Script- 
ures, but  strive  to  grasp  the  ideas,  which 
give  to  it  its  own  peculiar  character,  and 
on  which  it  founds  its  claims  to  be,  as  no 
other  book  can  be,  a  revelation  of  God  from 
Heaven. 

Among  other  attempts  made  at  the  present 
time  to  degrade  the  Bible  and  to  rob  it  of  its 
distinctive  character,  is  one  even  more 
Jesuitical  (for  Rationalism  has  its  Jesuits  as 
well  as  Rome)  than  that  to  which  attention 
has  just  been  called.  It  is  proposed  to  ex- 
purgate the  Bible  after  the  fashion  of  the 
^SiZi^nX,  classics,  as  containing  things  which  are 
offensive  to  polite  ears,  and  positively  hurtful 
to  good  morals.  The  proposition  is  as  mon- 
strous as  it  is  destructive  of  the  very  funda- 
mental idea  of  Divine  Revelation.  One  great 
object  for  which  Holy  Scriptures  were  given 
was  to  bear  witness  against  the  world's  sin. 
The  Christian  Church  from  the  beginning  has 


HOW  IS   THE  BIBLE    TO   BE  READ?  75 

used  Holy  Scriptures  in  three  ways,'chiefly.  It 
has  been  her  custom  to  read  Holy  Scripture 
publicly  in  the  congregation,  that  she  may 
thereby,  in  her  prophetical  character,  bear 
continual  witness  against  the  world's  .  sin. 
The  Anglican  Church,  accordingly,  does  not 
permit  her  clergy  to  select  what  they  shall 
read,  lest  they  should  cease  to  bear  witness 
against  prevailing  forms  of  error  ;  but  makes 
it  her  aim  to  read  the  whole  Sacred  Volume 
(as  far  as  possible)  through,  year  by  year,  in 
order  that  her  children  may  have  before  them 
continually  the  whole  counsel  of  God.  In  ad- 
dition to  this,  she  has  her  liturgical  or  devo- 
tional use  of  Holy  Scriptures  in  the  office  for 
the  Holy  Communion.  The  liturgical  use 
for  devotional  purposes  is  no  substitute  for 
the  prophetical  as  a  witness  against  the 
world's  sin,  but  Is  supplementary  to  it.  Then, 
In  the  textual  use  of  Scripture,  we  have  the 
application  of  the  substance  of  the  Divine 
Revelation  to  the  wants  of  the   Individual  : 


76  THE   QUESTION  OF   THE  DAY, 

an  application  still  more  extended  in  its 
homiletical  or  expository  use.  An  expur- 
gated Bible  means  neither  more  nor  less  than 
an  attempt  to  divide  and  kill  the  prophets, 
as  they  did  of  old  time,  lest  they  should  any 
longer  bear  witness  against  the  evil  that  Is 
in  the  world. 

There  are  two  vulgar  errors  continually 
to  be  met  with  (even  among  devout  persons) 
in  the  reading  of  the  Bible,  against  which,  in 
conclusion,  we  would  give  a  word  of  warn- 
ing. It  is  not  the  case  that  a  text,  or  say- 
ing, or  argument  is  Inspired,  because  it  Is 
found  in  the  Bible.  Balaam  was  a  false 
prophet,  and  he  gave  utterance  to  many  ele- 
vated sentiments,  as,  for  example,''  let  me  die 
the  death  of  the  righteous,  and  let  my  last  end 
be  like  his,"  but  we  are  not  on  that  account 
to  think  that  all  Balaam  said  and  did  was  the 
result  of  Divine  inspiration.  The  same  Is 
true  of  Job's  friends;  they  were  ''miserable 
counsellors,"  albeit  they  spoke  much  that  was 


NOV/  IS    THE  BIBLE    TO  BE  READ?  77 

true,  and  good  for  Job  to  hear.  It  is  no 
uncommon  thing,  it  has  been  observed,  for 
preachers  to  take  a  text,  or  quote  in  support 
of  some  doctrine,  or  some  position,  the 
words  or  the  actions  of  men,  simply  because 
they  occur  in  Scripture,  treating  all  as  equally 
inspired,  because  the  book  from  which  they 
quote  is  written  by  an  inspired  man  ;  or  as 
the  statement  is  commonly  made,  it  is  found 
in  the  inspired  Word  of  God.  Jeremy  Tay- 
lor, in  one  of  his  most  beautiful  sermons, — 
that  preached  at  the  funeral  of  the  Countess 
of  Carberry, — takes  for  his  text  the  words 
of  the  woman  of  Tekoah,  2  Sam.  xiv.  14, 
which  he  uses  throughout,  as  if  they  were  the 
words  of  one  speaking  by  the  spirit  of  God. 
Perhaps  no  passage  is  more  frequently  used 
in  this  way  than  one  spoken  by  the  Pharisees 
against  our  Lord,  and  his  Divine  power,  at 
a  time  when  our  Lord  worked  a  miracle,  and 
used  a  form  of  words  in  working  it,  for  the 
very  purpose  of  refuting  the  doctrine  which 


jS  THE    QUESTION  OF   THE  DAY. 

these  words  express.  Our  Lord  in  healing  a 
certain  paralytic,  said,  *'  Man,  thy  sins  are 
forgiven  thee."  The  Pharisees  murmured 
at  this,  and  exclaimed  that  such  a  form  was 
blasphemy,  for,  "  who  can  forgive  sins  but 
God  only?"  Our  Lord  replied,  that  He 
used  that  form  purposely  to  show  them  that 
''  the  Son  of  Man  hath  power  on  earth  to 
forgive  sins."  It  is  very  common  now  to 
hear  persons  quote  these  words  of  the  Phari- 
sees, to  show  that  the  Bible  denies  that  Christ 
has  given  power  to  his  ministers  to  pro- 
nounce absolution,  or  at  least  that  they  have 
power  to  forgive  sins.  Such  persons  might 
quote,  as  equally  taught  by  the  Bible,  that 
our  Lord  was  a  Samaritan  and  had  a  devil, 
for  it  was  the  same  persons,  the  Pharisees, 
that  said  it  of  him."  St.  Paul  warns  us  that 
even  among  inspired  men  there  are  things 
spoken  by  ''  authority,"  and  things  which  are 
spoken  only  in  the  way  of  advice."^     In  the 

*  I  Cor.  vii,  25. 


HO  IV  IS   THE  BIBLE    TO  BE  READ?  79 

one  case  there  is  a  law  of  perpetual  obligation 
to  be  observed  ;  in  the  other  the  injunction 
was  temporary,  and  given  to  meet  "the 
present  distress." 

Again  in  reading  Holy  Scriptures  it  is 
dangerous  to  trust  to  isolated  texts.  It  is 
ever  to  be  remembered,  as  well  for  the  de- 
fence as  for  the  confirmation  of  the  faith, 
that  it  is  the  spirit,  not  the  letter  of  Holy 
Scriptures  that  is  to  be  our  guide.  We  have 
a  notable  instance  of  this  in  the  way  the  Old 
Testament  is  quoted  in  the  New.  There 
would  seem  in  some  cases  to  be  a  positive  dis- 
regard of  the  letter,  and  that,  too,  with  a  view, 
it  would  seem,  of  preserving  the  spirit  in  the 
transfer  of  the  passage  from  Its  application 
underthe  old  economy  to  the  things  of  the  new 
dispensation.  1 1  matters  really  nothing,  so  far 
as  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  is  concerned, 
whether  (in  i.Tim.  iii.  i6)  the  true  rendering 
of  the  oldest  MSS.  be  0  or  ©.  The  faith  of 
the   Church  does  not  depend  upon  such  an 


8o  THE    QUESTION  OF   THE  DAY. 

uncertain  issue  as  the  carelessness  of  a  scribe 
or  the  legibility  of  a  manuscript."  Verbal 
criticism  may  do  its  work,  and  still  no  essen- 
tial dogma  be  imperiled  or  impinged  upon. 
''  Scripture  interpretation,  it  has  been  said, 
should  be  comprehensive  as  well  as  exact 
and  literal.  We  must  weigh  one  part  against 
another ;  we  must  give  to  each  phrase  its 
broader  rather  than  its  narrower  meaning ; 
we  must  take  the  tenor  of  the  faith  for  our 
guidance,  if  we  would  enter  into  the  mind  of 
the  Spirit." 


